Not missing you
by OzGeek
Summary: McAbby set between seasons 5 and 6. Abby and McGee miss each other while they are apart. Written for MrsMcGee in the NFA Secret Santa. See my profile for the Secret Santa stories link. 4 Chapters. Spoilers for end season 5.
1. Abby's Secret Video

_Author note:_

_This is an NFA Secret Santa story written for MrsMcGee according to the following specs:_

_McAbby is my ultimate pairing but i also love McGiva.  
__Must Haves: angst and maybe a rejection somewhere in the middle  
__Don't Wants: OC characters involved with the main characters_

_See my profile for links to the other Secret Santa stories_

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**Chapter 1: Abby's secret video.**

"I can not work like this!" Abby yelled across her lab at cardboard Ziva and Tony, the latter still sporting his moustache courtesy of McGee. "You two aren't helping," she snapped, stomping towards them. "I need more than cell phone images crudely adhered to janitorial equipment, I need you guys."

Dumping herself on a stool, she turned to her favourite computer and clicked a non-descript icon on the desk top unleashing a full screen live video feed of McGee sitting at his desk somewhere down in the geek sub-city of NCIS. The picture emanated from a tiny camera she had placed delicately on McGee's bookshelf one night. It wasn't just a camera: it was a state of the art Intel E52 surveillance camera with integrated microphone that her cousin Leon had 'acquired' for her. It had ridiculous resolution for something so small, allowing her to zoom in and examine every pore on McGee's face. She had told cousin Leon she needed the camera for a life or death situation – which was true in many ways. Besides, he owed her a favour.

Abby gained no small amount of personal satisfaction from the fact that she was spying into the Cyber Crimes Unit and they were oblivious. The E52 was a genius piece of electronic engineering but you'd think a bunch of computer geeks trained to detect high tech spying would notice one stuck to a shelf in the room. She'd notice if someone planted one in her lab. Then again, it was a very crowded bookshelf, as McGee's often were. She had no idea why he insisted on having all those books in his home or behind his desk anyway; he always had all the information in his head. In fact, in the many years she'd known him, she had never seen him open a single book. Now she came to think about it, McGee's books always looked brand new; completely untouched, like the set of some TV show.

Abby interrupted her own musings to click on the speaker icon under McGee's silent video image and turn off the mute. Usually, just the visuals were enough but today she was stumped – she needed the full audio visual McGee experience. Even when the sound was on, he wasn't saying anything but she if she listened very hard, she could almost hear him breathing. Now, with pseudo-McGee beside her once again, Abby relaxed for the first time that day.

"Now, McGee," she said pursing her lips in annoyance, "these guys have a firewall to die for, how are we going to get through it?" She paused for his answer. "Of course, I've tried that, I'm no rookie, think of something else." Again Abby conjured McGee's response in her head; then scoffed at it. "Tell me something I don't know, McGee."

On the screen, she saw McGee click his mouse and stare at his computer as he did several times a day. She wondered what it was that McGee watched for so long on his monitor. He often looked sad as he stared. Occasionally he just looked thoughtful and, every now and again, she would catch him smiling. Once he had even laughed. Maybe he was looking at really strange porn. On her image it was almost as if he were looking straight at her. Abby sighed dejectedly, rested her chin on one hand and watched him longingly. She wanted him with her right now.

"What have you got for me, Abs?" asked Gibbs, appearing silently in the lab.

She muted the sound and minimized McGee to a nameless icon in one practised, deft action.

"Nothing, oh great one," she said with forced levity.

Gibbs looked back at the door. "Do you want me to redo the entrance?"

Abby smiled sadly. "It won't change anything. It's a firewall I just can't crack."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yet," she amended, "can't crack yet."

Gibbs squeezed out a gentle smile.

"You know this would be a whole lot faster if I had help from a super geek," said Abby suggestively.

"I'll get you an assistant," Gibbs offered.

"Oh come on!" Abby groaned. "My last two assistants are serving time."

Gibbs smiled at her sadly. "He's gone Abs."

Abby shrank inwardly. "I know but I need him back. It's been 14 days, 20 hours and 32 minutes. Don't let this get into triple digits, Gibbs. I'm going to start keeping score."

Gibbs gave her a puzzled look but she wasn't finished.

"You know how you never realise how much you miss someone until they're gone?"

"Yep, I think I do."

"Well, this is so much worse than that. He was the other half of me, Gibbs. I mean, I miss Tony, he's like my playmate and Ziva well, that's a girl bonding thing but McGee: he was the Ying to my Yang. I can't do this alone anymore." She buried her head in Gibb's shoulder and he wrapped his warm arms around her. "I need him, Gibbs," she whispered.

"Working on it," said Gibbs quietly, planting a gentle kiss on the top of her head.

Abby stayed in position for almost a minute before she pulled away. "See!" she demanded pointing to her stubbornly quiet equipment, "no breakthrough while you're in here. Even your power doesn't work without him."

"See what you can do," said Gibbs kindly.

Abby watched him turn and walk away. The moment the lab door slid shut behind him, she resurrected McGee on the laptop. He was looking in profile now, talking to someone else. She kept the mute on; she didn't need to hear his conversations with other people.

"See what happens when you're not around, McGee," she accused: "Nothing."

McGee ignored her and kept on talking off into space to some unseen audience.

Abby turned to cardboard Tony. "Tony, McGee's ignoring me again."

"We'll see about that," she mimicked Tony. Grabbing the mop handle, she tapped cardboard Tony's head lightly on the top of the laptop. "Lady's talking to you, Probie." Onscreen, McGee did not seem to notice.

Defeated, Abby sighed and returned cardboard Tony lovingly to his post next to cardboard Ziva. This was never going to work.

McGee was still talking on her screen. She took a moment to admire him just one more time then minimized the picture again. It just wasn't fair. She needed him here with her to bounce ideas of, to discuss dating disasters, to tease, to smell, to love. Dating was so out but she needed to see him.

Then it hit her.

"I'll ask him to lunch!" she told Major Mass Spec as she leapt from her stool.


	2. The other side

**Chapter 2: The other side.**

"McGee!"

McGee jumped as his new boss broke into his Abby-filled daydream. By the time he landed back in harsh reality, said boss was already half way through a long lecture on concentration.

It's not that he didn't like the guy, there wasn't much not to like about Leon Vance. He was polite, hard working and knew computers inside out. He never hit McGee on the back of the head, insulted him or made him work while covered with poison ivy rash. Nor had he ever asked him to 'reboot' a cell phone or perform computational miracles. Yep, all in all Vance was ….. the worst boss he'd ever had.

Even his co-workers were pleasant - sometimes too pleasant. Although he usually managed to endure the constant adulations of his younger co-geeks, their daily praise tended to overwhelm him after a while. The mornings were the worst when the elevator doors would open and the ritual "morning boss" chorus would begin. If Tony were there, he would tell him all about the locker scene in Men in Black. Some mornings, he could even swear the members of the geek express were chanting: "Oh McGee can you see…" It was all just too much. He needed some good honest put downs and reality checks from his old team. Much like Eyor in Winnie The Pooh: he needed some genuine misery in his life in order to be happy.

"Yes, boss," McGee chanted. He had no idea what the conversation had been about but it involved not zoning out in the middle of a program. Vance wanted to see "some serious progress" when he returned. Not, "have it finished when I get back", but "progress". How on earth did you measure progress anyway? That's not a tangible milestone. "Reconstruct that hard disk in an hour", now THAT'S a motivation.

He sighed as Vance turned and headed for the elevator. It was difficult to muster enthusiasm for any NCIS Director nowadays, they were such transient beasts: the Dark Arts Professors of NCIS.

Alone again, aside from his devoted geek entourage, McGee heaved a depressed sigh. He needed a little treat to perk him up for the rest of the day. Checking that the other programmers were busily focused on their screens, he turned to his computer and clicked his favourite tiny icon. Suddenly, there she: live Abby in her own little dedicated window. He kept the image small so as not to attract attention and he NEVER used the sound – that was just inviting trouble.

Abby would never have believed how he managed to source one of the new E52 Intel cameras from New Orleans. They were state of the art and hot of the production line. He'd had to pull a lot of strings to get his hands on one - even citing the 'life and death' requirements of the Cyber Crimes unit, but it was worth it for the clarity of image and fantastic resolution. Secreting it in her lab had been easier than he expected: he had just snuck into her lab one bowling night and attached it to the stomach of the little male gothic figure who perpetually resided on the shelf facing her computer. He was just the perfect camera height. It surprised McGee that Abby hadn't noticed something different about her lab but it just went to show that she would probably never make it in the Cyber Crimes Unit where everyone was trained to detect subtle changes. He'd notice if she'd done the same to him.

McGee smiled sadly as he watched Abby chatting to her monitor, waving her arms as she spoke. He could almost envisage the conversation - Abby inviting responses and then dismissing his response. He missed those long tirades and he found himself jealous of the computer who had replaced him as her muse. They were his conversations. He desperately wanted to be there by her side, ignoring her ramblings while trying to concentrate. So ingrained was the habit that, without her incessant chatter, he found it difficult to work without his mind wandering off.

Abby turned slightly on the image and in the background he could see the Boss. She looked sad as she spoke to him and then suddenly they were hugging. McGee knew it was silly but every time Abby hugged Gibbs, a tiny part of him died. He wanted to be the one she hugged: the only one. He told himself that a Gibbs and Abby embrace was a father-daughter thing but a niggling voice inside him kept insisting that Abby would never let a little thing like a generation age gap stop her if she wanted a man.

He needed to be there with her to remind her of his presence so that no other man filled his rightful place. There was no way Vance was going to let him wander out of the office to visit Abby every day like Gibbs did and his work just didn't cross paths with hers anymore, no matter how hard he tried to force it. So the best he could do for now was to secretly watch her on his little screen and pretend she was right beside him. Sometimes he lost ten minute blocks at a time just staring at her: it made him both happy and sad. He wasn't sure if becoming a Gothic voyeur was a good or bad thing but it he knew it was a need and a want. He needed and wanted to be with her, yet all he had was her little image.

It just wasn't enough.

A minion came over to discuss something, and McGee minimized Abby's image in a heartbeat. The questions were long and complex but McGee's answers came automatically, his mind elsewhere. His ears did prick up at the last question: "Lunch Boss?"

"Good idea," he said brightly. "I'll go ask her."


	3. The question

**Chapter 3 – The question.**

Abby nervously poked her head around the edge of the elevator door, hoping not to attract too much attention from the resident Cyber Crimes Unit geeks who lurked in the NCIS sub basement. She needn't have bothered, the few that remained at their desks were on their 'lunch break': eating packed sandwiches over their keyboards while either surfing the net or playing wargames against each other across the room.

McGee's desk, however, was vacant. Abby marched up to it and searched for an indication of where he might be: nothing. No note, no calendar, no pictures: in fact nothing of McGee's life present or past. More specifically, there were no little souvenirs of her or the rest of his team! She had cardboard Tony and Ziva, she had started on a photo wall from her cell phone images (though for some bizarre reason McGee's photo stubbornly refused to print) and she had even stuck up the postcard that Tony had sent her. McGee had nothing! Here she was monitoring his every breath and he didn't care whether or not she even existed. He had wiped her clean out of his life!

"Can I help you," quavered a heavily be-spectacled nerd hovering over McGee's book shelf.

"I'm looking for McGee," she said curtly.

"Ah…he's… um.. he said he was going to ask someone to lunch…a ..a girl I think."

Abby brightened immediately. "I knew it," she declared victoriously. "Thanks! Oh, I have to catch him!"

Without another word to the nervous geek mesmerized by her presence, she bounded back to the elevator.

* * *

McGee entered Abby's lab hesitantly. The last time he had been here he was surreptitiously placing a spy camera on a plastic man's stomach. The room seemed abandoned: no music, no whirring machinery, certainly no Abby. Venturing further in, he came across cardboard Tony and Ziva, smiling their creepy little smiles. He shuddered and backed off carefully, running into a wall with photos stuck to it with great deliberation. He examined the shots: Tony, Ziva, Ziva, Tony…more Tony. McGee scanned the rest of the lab looking for a photo of himself but came up blank. Where was his photo? She had minor shrines to Tony and Ziva's memory but nothing to remind her of him!

He calmed himself. It's not as if he had truly 'left'. After all, he was still in the same building. It's just that they never saw each other anymore. He dumped himself on a stool and sulked. Here he was monitoring her every move like a stalker and she hadn't given him a second thought! Furthermore – where was she? Maybe she was going out to lunch with someone else. Maybe she was seeing Gibbs and had just entirely forgotten about him.

The mere thought made him angry and he didn't even know why. He stomped out of the lab to the elevator but then paused. He wasn't quite ready to face the geek cheer squad again, so the sub basement was out. Heaving a great sigh, he decided a nostalgic trip to the old bull pen might calm him down – but by the stairs: he didn't need to meet one of his groupies, or heaven forbid a pack, coming back from lunch in the elevator.

* * *

"I'm back!" Abby called as the lab doors swished open majestically before her.

Silence.

"McGee?"

More silence.

"McGee, I'm back."

A sudden horror filled her – the woman McGee was asking out to lunch was not her! No wonder he didn't have any pictures of her: he was dating. McGee had forgotten all about her.

Out of habit, she stormed out of her lab to the bullpen to vent her frustration at anyone unfortunate enough to be in her way.

* * *

Abby counted the steps from her lab to McGee's desk out loud as she walked. She knew the number by heart but the counting kept calm her. She was just rounding the final corner when she heard a familiar voice and stopped dead in front of Gibbs' desk. Gibbs gave her a questioning glance but she wasn't looking at him. Her attention was focused on the man who had spurned her: McGee talking with, oh no, Special Agent Lee! All that time ago when he'd said she was 'hot', he actually meant it and now, there he was chatting with her like old friends…like lovers.

McGee looked up at Abby standing at Gibbs' desk, her hand trailing across the boss' equipment as though she were entertaining the thought of wiping everything off the desk and taking Gibbs right there in front of him. Gibbs was staring at Abby, as though he might well jump on her first.

Abby and McGee's eyes locked. The air between them hung heavy with disdain.

"Special Agent McGee," Abby greeted coldly.

"Miss Scuito," McGee replied in kind.

The silence stretched painfully thin as they stood glaring at each other.

Finally Agent Lee could stand no more. "Ah, right well, I have to get back to my work or Special Agent Gibbs will have my head. I'm sure you know what it's like. Thanks for dropping by, Agent McGee."

"A pleasure talking to you, Agent Lee" said McGee pointedly, his eyes never leaving Abby's.

Abby turned and stomped back out of the bullpen leaving McGee to march the other way back to the elevator. Gibbs and Lee exchanged mystified looks.


	4. Voices off

**Chapter 4: Voices off**

McGee burst out of the elevator, geeks scattering before him like cockroaches to cower in a terrified group in a distant corner of the room. He ignored them: he could apologize later. For now he relished the solitude.

Ramming himself onto his computer chair, McGee hit Abby's icon and, for the first time, viewed it full screen and invoked the sound. He wanted to hear her; to hear her excuses and find out why she couldn't even put up a single lousy photo of him on her wall. Being Abby, there was no doubt she was going to rant about it all in her lab the moment she got back, if not sooner.

He didn't have long to wait, he could hear Abby yelling before she came on screen. Then suddenly, her fuming face was all over his monitor. For a moment, McGee thought she had stopping talking as she leaned over and clicked her mouse but then the floodgates opened.

"Not one thing!" she screamed, "not even one little reminder of me. Not a photo, an empty Caf-Pow container with my lipstick imprinted on the side, not even a little memento stuffed toy stolen from my lab. Don't those good times mean anything to you Special Agent McGee?"

"Well Miss Memorabilia," McGee shot back at the image before him. "I see you erect a Wall of Remembrance to Tony and Ziva but not me. Tony's some weird broom/mop thing, Ziva's a regular mop – what am I: a toilet brush in the ladies?"

"I couldn't get your ugly mug to print from my cell or you'd be on my precious wall," Abby shot back at him. "The printer obviously knew you didn't care."

McGee paused for a moment and considered her response.

"Abby are you talking to me?"

"No, I'm never talking to you again."

"Ah, Abs," McGee started carefully, "we are talking to each other but we're not in the same room."

"That's because I bugged your desk with an E52."

"Abs?"

"What? I'm not talking to you, remember."

"Abs," he sang, waiting for the penny to drop.

"McGee!" There it fell. "On my God where did you put it?"

A sporting grin spread over McGee's face. "I'll race you."

The two jumped out of their seats and began the hunt.

"What am I looking for?" asked Abby.

"E52."

"Oh wow, from Cousin Leon?"

"I doubt it," said McGee distractedly, throwing books to the ground. "Ah ha! Gotcha!"

He looked over at his monitor and saw Abby's face staring at him from close quarters. "And I've found mine," she said. "Oh, he looks so cute with a belly button."

"Wait right there," said McGee excitedly.

As his startled, bespectacled audience observed him warily from their corner, McGee raced back to the elevator. He gave them a cheery wave as the doors opened but none of them dared move to reciprocate.

* * *

McGee took one step out of the elevator before Abby launched herself at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry I ever doubted you," she cried, smothering his face with frenzied kisses.

"Abs, Abs," he struggled, "it's OK."

She held him at arms length. "It's not OK. Promise me we'll never fight again."

"I promise."

"Come on."

Abby grabbed McGee by the arm and pulled him through the lab doors, locking them behind her. Then she turned to face him. "Do you know how much I love you, McGee?" she demanded.

"Like a puppy," McGee replied, resigned to his fate.

"Oh I think I'd get arrested for doing this to a puppy," she teased with a playful smile.

Then she was all over him. Her mouth planted over his, her hands ripping his shirt open, showering the room with buttons.

McGee did not need any more encouragement. He pulled away from her for a moment and ripped her T-shirt over her head while her mouth and hands idled impatiently. Then they both set about desperately exploring each other's bodies with lips, teeth, palms and fingertips.

"McGee!" Vance's voice rang out through Abby's lab causing them both to freeze on the spot.

"I locked the doors," whispered Abby urgently. "He must have a key."

"Or a video link," Vance suggested.

Abby considered this, "Or a… oh no."

Abby and McGee remained locked together, neither daring to look at the screen; McGee's teeth still lodged in Abby's spider web tattoo.

"Hungry McGee?" asked Vance, casually. "Could you two do me the service of looking at me?"

Still embraced, Abby and McGee shuffled their angle slightly then turned their heads to look at the monitor where Vance was peering out at them fringed by a large audience of gaping computer scientists.

"Face on, please," said Vance.

"But sir," McGee began.

"Now."

Slowly McGee and Abby peeled apart to stand side by side in front of the camera: Abby naked from the waist up and McGee with his shirt ripped open. In the background of Vance's image, one female and two male geeks fainted.

"Well, I think you've educated a few people today, Miss Scuito and Special Agent McGee," said Vance as the remaining conscious geeks hurriedly disappeared from view.

"Sir, I'm sorry sir," McGee started. "It will never happen again."

"It had better happen again," warned Abby under her breath.

McGee turned to her. "Yes, it will happen again. I mean not here. I mean maybe we'll 'do lunch' sometime and, you know, 'DO' lunch."

"McGee!" yelled Vance.

McGee clamped his mouth shut.

Vance indicated the computing staff in the background. "You know how they used to think you were the Messiah?"

McGee blanched. "Yes sir."

"You have now been officially upgraded to a God."

* * *

The End


End file.
